El reparador

by Bernard Malamud

Tired of his unfruitful existence, Yakov Bok moves to Kiev during Tsar Nicolas II’s reign to seek a better future. He soon finds work, but is forced to keep his Jewish identity a secret. However, after the murder of a Russian boy too close to his workplace, he is accused of carrying out the crime. And in a time of anti-Semitic virulence, there won’t be a lack of witnesses, evidence, and accusations all aimed at condemning him. This novel, which earned Bernard Malamud the Pulitzer Prize, explores how the idea of freedom grows within a man while he is the subject of a great injustice.

 

Harto de su infructuosa existencia, Yakov Bok  busca un futuro mejor en Kiev durante la época del zar Nicolás II. Pronto consigue un trabajo, pero se ve obligado a no revelar su identidad judía. Sin embargo, tras el asesinato de un niño ruso demasiado cerca de su puesto de trabajo, le señalan como autor del crimen, y no faltarán testigos, pruebas y acusaciones orientados a condenarle en una época de gran virulencia antisemita. Esta novela, la cual le obtuvo el premio Pulitzer a Bernard Malamud, explora cómo la idea de libertad crece en la conciencia de un hombre sometido a una terrible injusticia.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Jewish, Russia, Literature, Novels

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Bernard Malamud was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer (also filmed), about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

ECCE HOMO


Alan Bates è Yakov Bok nel film omonimo di John Frankenheimer del 1968.

È forse il romanzo, o meglio, l’opera, ché Malamud ha pubblicato anche alcune raccolte di racconti, di maggior successo: pubblicato nel 1966 gli fece ottenere il premio Pulitzer e il suo secondo National Book Award.

Yakov Bok non è di Kiev: quando la moglie lo lascia per andare con un forestiero, decide di abbandonare lo shtetl dove è sempre vissuto e trasferirsi in città per cercare una nuova vita.
All’inizio si offre come tuttofare, da cui presumo derivi il titolo originale, The Fixer.
Un giorno aiuta un anziano caduto nella neve che per ricompensarlo del gesto gentile gli offre il posto di sorvegliante nella sua fabbrica di mattoni.
A questo punto Yakov commette la sua unica colpa, anche se è difficile considerarla tale: il nuovo datore di lavoro è un feroce antisemita in un’epoca facile ai pogrom, così per non perdere il lavoro Yakov dà false generalità e si passa per ‘gentile’.


Dirk Bogarde è il magistrato Bibikov.

Da buon ebreo, sin dall’incipit, capisce che se c’è un guaio, in qualche modo lui ci finirà in mezzo:
Dalla finestrella della sua stanza sopra la scuderia della fabbrica di mattoni, quella mattina sul presto Yakov Bok vide diverse persone, nei loro cappotti lunghi, che correvano tutte nella stessa direzione. “Vey is mir”, pensò a disagio, è successo qualcosa di brutto.
Seguono trecento e rotte pagine di sfortune, sciagure, privazioni, vessazioni, torture: per più di due anni, e per trecento e rotte pagine, Yakov è chiuso nella sua cella, imprigionato, con l’unica ‘evasione’ di quel che riesce a vedere dalla finestrella.



Il Mersault di Camus rimane in carcere apatico, fino alla sentenza, rinunciando a qualsiasi difesa, o anche solo spiegazione: nonostante il giudice insista, e si capisce che si accontenterebbe di poco, probabilmente basterebbe un “mi spiace”, in fondo la vittima è “solo” un arabo.
Invece Yakov Bok lotta fino alla fine per proclamare la sua innocenza e invocare giustizia: nonostante tutto gli sia contro, la volontà di condannarlo esplicita, ogni prova a suo discarico rifiutata, accolte invece le false prove e testimonianze che lo vorrebbero colpevole. Pur se perdente, pur se sconfitto, Yakov, novello Giobbe, diventa eroico nella sua difesa.



La storia è ambientata nel 1911, nell’Ucraina che faceva parte della Russia zarista.
È ispirata da un fatto vero, il che secondo me né aggiunge né modifica la notevole qualità di questo romanzo: Mendel Beilis, che nel libro diventa Yakov Bok, venne imprigionato con l’accusa d’aver ucciso un ragazzino per un rituale religioso. Inutile dire che era totalmente innocente, non aveva nulla a che fare con quanto successo. Mendel Beilis/Yakov era però l’uomo sbagliato nel posto sbagliato e nel momento sbagliato.
Per la ‘giustizia’ zarista invece la situazione si rovesciava: Mendel Beilis/Yakov era il colpevole perfetto.

L’unica vera colpa di Yakov Bok è quella d’essere nato ebreo.
Un atto d’accusa magistrale contro il razzismo, contro ogni razzismo.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

معمولا بیشتر کتابهایی که در مورد یهود ستیزی در اروپا نوشته شده به هولوکاست و جنگ جهانی دوم ، یا زندگی یهودیان در گتوها و یا اردوگاه های کار اجباری پرداخته و نویسندگان اروپایی گویا علاقه چندانی به چگونگی زندگی یهودیان در کشورهای دیگر و ابعاد گسترده یهود ستیزی نداشته اند . البته ژرمینال نوشته امیل زولا و خانواده موسکات اثر ایزاک باشویتس سینگر که نگاهی کامل و جامعع به زندگی یهودیان شرق اروپا و لهستان و سنت های آنان انداخته را می توان سوا و جدا از جریان کلی دانست.
کتاب تعمیرکار نوشته برنارد مالامود هم از همین گروه و رده است ، این رمان که برگرفته از زندگی واقعی مناخیم مندل بلیس یهودی بی گناهی بوده که به ناحق در روسیه زندانی شده را می توان معادل ژرمینال امیل زولا و دریفوس کتاب او دانست . داستان کتاب در اوکراین می گذرد که آن زمان بخشی از روسیه بوده ، اگرچه که امروز برای آزادی و رهایی خود از چنگال خرس روس می جنگد .
یاکوف بک قهرمان داستان یاهمان فرد تعمیرکار ، یهودی زاده ایست که چندان هم یهودی نیست ، او اعتقادی به رسوم و آداب بی شمار دین خود ندارد ، او که به دنبال تغییر است ، با دست خالی از روستای نکبت زده خود راهی کیف می شود اما با مجموعه کاملی از رخدادهای اجتماعی ، فقر و یهودی ستیزی چنان او را خرد و شکسته کرده که زندگی در همان نکبت قبلی نهایت آرزویش می شود .
طنز تلخ داستان یاکوف بک هنگامی ایست که انجمن ضد یهود به او تهمت خون ( یعنی کشتن کودکان غیر یهود و خارج کردن خون آنها برای پختن مصا نوعی نان فطیر ، در درازای تاریخ اروپا این اتهام همواره سبب شروع قتل وعام و نسل کشی یهودیان شده ) نسبت می دهد ، او زمانی با این اتهام سنگین روبرو شده که از پیشامد روزگار با خواندن کتابهای اسپینوزا در حال تکامل و نقد مذهب و جدایی از دین و آیین خود است .
خواندن شرح شوربختی یاکوف بک هنگامی که سقوط او گویا انتهایی ندارد اگر چه برای خواننده تلخ و دردناک است اما در ورای آن می تواند چگونگی تغییر یهودی نگون بخت و تبدیل او به سمبل و نماد اراده و مقاومت را ببیند ، عذاب روحی و رنج جسم و بدبختی او در زندان استادانه بدست نویسنده ترسیم شده وتکامل پله به پله او را نشان می دهد .
اما خواننده ممکن است از خواندن روزهای طولانی ، بلند و تمام نشدنی زندان انفرادی خسته شده و یا پیام مالامود را از همان آغاز زندان درک کند ، در حقیقت شرح روزهای زندان یاکوف بک و گذر روزگار به تلخی و کندی به داستان ریتم کندی داده و کتاب را گرفتار در چرخه ای از یکنواختی و مجموعه ای از رخدادهای قابل پیش بینی کرده است .
در پایان باید گفت که تعمیرکار با وجود یکنواختی داستان ، شرح مدام رنج و شور بختی سخت آزار دهنده ، خواننده را با بخش مهمی از تاریخ روسیه که سرشار از جهل ، خرافات ، فساد و تبعیض است آشنا می کند ، ترکیبی جادویی که در نهایت به فروپاشی و انقلاب می انجامد .

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elogiat de critici în 1966, multi-premiat, romanul lui Malamud nu mi-a plăcut. Deși mi-ar fi plăcut să-mi placă. L-am parcurs răbdător. Am căutat semnificații ascunse. N-am găsit. Am meditat la necesitate și liber arbitru. Fără folos. În acest caz, probabil, realitatea e mai adîncă decît ficțiunea.

Un tînăr evreu din Ukraina, Iakov Bok, este acuzat de o „crimă rituală”, pe care, firește, nu a comis-o. Petrece o vreme în închisoare. E pe cale să-și piardă mințile. Tema inocentului chinuit pe nedrept este arhaică. Desigur, putem vedea în Iakov o versiune modernă a biblicului Iov, dar asta nu spune mare lucru despre valoarea cărții. Literatura e plină e Iovi.

Bernard Malamud a rescris, de fapt, o poveste reală. În 1911, un anume Mendel Beilis a trecut printr-un proces similar. După ce a stat doi ani în temniță, a fost achitat. Ajuns în SUA, Beilis și-a povestit experiența în The Story of My Sufferings. Urmașii lui l-au acuzat pe Malamud în mai multe rînduri de plagiat. Nu are cum fi plagiat, fiindcă dacă povestești ceva în cuvintele tale nu plagiezi, repovestești. Dar poveștile, în mare, coincid...

[William2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium, which is in large part about the horrid pogroms unleashed on Europe's Jews in the Middle Ages, I thought The Fixer would be a compatible co-read. The novel is set in Russia between the end of the Russo-Japanese War (1905) and the start of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917). The Fixer tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jew dwelling in a Russian shtetl 30 versts from Kiev who tries to work as a general handyman, a fixer. But there's not much to fix in the shtetl, and not much money to go around in payment. Bok is usually paid in soup. But Bok is ambitious and after being left by his wife, whom he believes barren, he heads for nearby Kiev where there dwells a large population of Jews living in the ghetto. He believes that in the shtetl life was passing him by. On his way to Kiev, he fantasizes about wealth and property and a new wife who bears him beautiful children. He is able to pass for a Russian. One day he finds a fat man, Nikolai Maximovitch, face down in the snow. Turning him over he detects first the liquour on his breath and then the emblem of the Black Hundreds, a virulently anti-Semitic group, on his coat. The man's daughter appears and together they carry the inebriate home. As a reward, Bok is put to work papering the flat Nikolai Maximovutch owns above his own, for 40 rubles--an enormous sum. Later, Bok is promoted to run the Russian's brick factory. When a dead boy is found, and his death absurdly attributed to nonexistent Jewish practices, Bok is picked up by the police. It's clear from the start that their only goal is to frame him for this murder. The intensity of false witness borne against Bok simply astonishes. The monstrous hate with which his accusers are consumed stuns the mind. The so-called testimonies from so-called witnesses reveal a legal system rotten to the core. Everyone, it seems, is a pathological liar. The fixer is then moved to prison and it is here that Malamud appears to do the impossible: to take us through a day to day existence that is bleakness itself and yet which holds the reader through sheer narrative impetus. Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon was probably a model for Malamud, and without question Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago did not appear until 1972 and The Fixer was published in 1966. Both are set in Russia and contain long detailed sections about coercing false confessions. I know a lot of readers abhor this book, or any book not about sunny, feel-good topics. Those readers are apparently in the game for its power to divert them from their current miseries. The Fixer isn't interested in doing that. It is in fact about misery, about suffering. It's almost as if Malamud said: Let me take the grimmest subject matter imaginable and not only make it supremely readable, but make it into art. However, he has done far more than that. He has also dramatized a common plight under the ignorant Tsar Nicholas II--whose entire family would shortly be executed by the Bolsheviks--and thereby instructs us all in matters of virtue.

[Brina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Rabbi”, a simple Jew asks in Fiddler on the Roof, “do you have a blessing for the tsar?” The rabbi responds, “May G-D bless and keep the tsar…far away from us.” As comical as this movie line seemed, life in tsarist Russia were dangerous times to be a Jew. Law abiding citizens feared successful Jewish businessmen, and Cossacks instigated pogroms on Jewish shtetls with hope of eradicating them. Most Jews, most likely my family included, were concentrated in the Pale of Settlement, which is located in present day Ukraine. Other than the Pale, Jews knew that life could be dangerous and best to get out of the country while they still could. My family immigrated to the United States between 1905 and 1910, avoiding the last dark days of the tsar and the equally dangerous days of revolution. Most likely, Bernard Malamud’s family left Russia during those dark days as well or he would not have been present to write a griping novel about a Jew who was scapegoated for the murder of a Russian boy. Malamud, one of a group of gifted Jewish writers in the mid 20th century, would win both the national book award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Fixer,a tale about a simple Jew who most likely wished that the tsar was as far away from him as possible.

Yakov Shepsovitch Bok was a simple Jew who lived in the pale of settlement with his wife Raisl and her father Shmuel. While it was not a beautiful life, it was simple within Bok’s means. He worked as a fixer, a handyman, and did not have much, but at the end of the week had enough kopeks to fund a shabbos meal for his family. One thing that Yakov desired was children, but after six and a half years Raisl remained childless. According to Jewish law, a man can divorce his wife after ten years if his wife has not produced any children. Yakov grew frustrated with his wife, so she left the shtetl and took up relations with a non Jew. An orphan, Yakov had nothing left in the shtetl even though this was all he knew. He made a decision to abandon life as a religious Jew and adopt the position of free thinker, which he formulated on the teachings of Spinoza. As a non religious Jew without peyos, a yarmulke, and tzitzis, perhaps he could find work in the city of Kiev, and, after earning some rubles, perhaps he could send for Raisl and Shmuel, and they could start a new life in the city or even in America. That was Yakov’s impetus for leaving the shtetl anyway. What he failed to grasp, however, was that life in the city would be worse for Jews than in the shtetl where for the most they were left to do as they pleased, the blessing from Fiddler on the Roof all the more true with each passing page.

The Kiev of the last days of Tsar Nicholas II was not a kind place for Jews. The only tsar who did not officially persecute the Jews was Tsar Alexander III, which is why many Russian Jews will name their children Alexander or Alexandra. Nicholas, on the other hand, blamed the Jews for all the ills in society and placed many Jewish laws on the books, staging pogroms in Jewish villages if he believed Jews to be causing too many problems. The only city where Jews were welcome was Odessa but even that was sketchy, which is why as many Jews as possible left Russia in the last days of Nicholas’ rule. In Kiev, Jews lived in the Podol, a ghetto, and Yakov found a room with one Aaron Latke. He had trouble finding work because most Jews could not afford to pay for his services, and goyim would never employ a Jew at a job that actually earned rubles. Desperate, Yakov began to wonder why he even came to Kiev in the first place; perhaps, life in the shtetl was not so baf after all. His luck began to change when he found a drunkard face down in the snow one evening and brought him home. His reward was forty rubles and employment in the man’s brickyard, along with housing. This man was an antisemite who would never employ a Jew, so Yakov reinvented himself as Yakov Ivanovitch Dugoloshev. As Dugoloshev, doors would open to Yakov that would not be available to him as Yakov Bok; however, even without his garment, Yakov still looked like a Jew and his name, as unique as it sounded, did not fool many, the goyim plotting of a way to do away with him.

Since the early days of Christianity, uninformed gentiles believed that Jews blood let Christian children for part of their Passover rituals. During cycles of heightened attacks on Jews, parents would keep their children inside homes during the days leading up to the Passover festival in case a Christian mob would target them as retribution. In the time around Passover, a Christian boy is founded stabbed to death in a cave outside of Kiev. Even if one or more Christians killed the boy, the easiest thing to do would be to blame a Jew, and the most convenient Jew to scapegoat was Yakov. Jews during the tsar’s rule were thrown in prison without a cause, but in Yakov’s case, he was accused of killing an innocent Russian boy. The last seventy five percent of the novel deals with Yakov’s confinement in prison and the conditions that deteriorated by the day. Officials responsible for his prison stay and indictment were antisemitic, supported the tsar, and believed the timeless tale of bloodletting children for Passover. None of these men were wont to hear Yakov’s side of the story, much less to let him go free. To these men, he is a Jew even if he used an assumed name and lived as a freethinker rather than a religious person. Any person who exhibited the minutest amount of sympathy toward Yakov throughout his ordeal was found dead. He was left with no allies and hoped that someone in Russia believed him before the indictment went through.

As most of the narrative occurs within the horrid prison conditions and included conversation and contemplation on Yakov’s part, I could only read the text in small doses. Throughout history, Jews have been scapegoats and left to fend for themselves and the whole premise left me frustrated with various emotions boiling through me. That I finished reading this novel about persecution against Jews on a day where Israel buried victims of terrorism was not lost on me. As much as things change, sadly they stay the same. The Dreyfus affair, Yakov Bok, Israeli hostages. It is why it took me a good twenty hours to formulate my thoughts to write here even though I was wowed as usual by Malamud and knew that he had written an award winning novel. Malamud wrote at a time where antisemitism still abounded in the United States. He brought to the attention the plight of Jews in antisemitic societies and perhaps lead people to think, but here in America, it is different, it is a society forged on religious freedoms. Judging by the climate today, America is sadly not different, just late to the ballgame. Yakov Bok had been based on Mendel Beilis, who had been charged on false charges for a similar crime and then miraculously acquitted by a Russian jury. Malamud told this tale and then some, which lead to him garnering awards and accolades for his work. I hope that we as a Jewish people do not need to experience a Yakov Bok again; yet, after yesterday’s world events, I have to keep my faith that that day never comes.

5 stars

[Mohammad Hrabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

همانطور که در مقدمه‌ی مترجم آمده‌ است از این کتاب فیلمی توسط جان فرانکن هایمر در سال ۱۹۶۸، با بازی آلن بیتس ساخته شد است.
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«دنیای ما، دنیای از هم‌گسیخته و در هم شکسته‌ی ما، به رمان‌های اگزیستانسیالیستی بیشتری نیاز دارد. رمان‌هایی که چیزی ارزشمندتر و فراتر از امید به ما ارائه بدهند: رمان‌هایی که به‌ مثابه‌ی فراخوانی برای عمل و حرکت باشند.» (جاناتان سافران فوئر). مقدمه‌ی مترجم. صفحه ۶ کتاب
قهرمان‌های مالامود از رنج فرار نمی‌کنند، بلکه آن را به‌ مثابه‌ی واقعیت وجود انسان و تنها راه رستگاری او می‌پذیرند. مالامود همواره در آثارش نشان داده که رهایی حقیقی، تنها از راه رنج میسر می‌شود و در تعمیرکار این باور را به کامل‌ترین شکل ممکن تجلی بخشیده است. جاناتان یاردلی، منتقد واشینگتن پست، معتقد است «استعداد ذاتی مالامود چنین است که یک داستان تخیلی که به بزرگداشت -بله، بزرگداشت! - رنج می‌پردازد، به هیج وجه مغموم نیست.» مقدمه‌ی مترجم. صفحه‌ی ۸ کتاب
مالامود برای پدید آوردن فضای فانتزی چند بن‌مایه‌ی ثابت را در آثارش به‌ کار می‌برد، که در اینجا مهم‌ترین آنها زندان است. خود او در یکی از مصاحبه‌هایش در این‌باره می‌گوید «زندان استعاره‌ای برای مخمصه‌ای است که انسان در طول تاریخ به آن دچار است. جبر اولین زندان بشری است، هر چند میوه‌هایش به چشم همگان نمی‌آید. بی‌عدالتی اجتماعی، بی‌رحمی و نادانی هم زندان‌های ساخته‌ی دست بشرند… خارق‌العاده‌ترین اختراع ما آزادی بشر است.» مقدمه‌ی مترجم. صفحه ۹ کتاب
چه کسی به سوراخ‌های سقف خانه‌اش اهمیت می‌دهد وقتی می‌تواند از آنجا خدا را دید بزند؟ صفحه‌ی ۱۷ کتاب
وقتی تمام عمرت هیچ نداشته‌ای، زیاد داشتن وحشت‌زده‌ات می‌کند. صفحه ۵۷ کتاب
اگر شما فقیر باشید، تمام وقتتان صرف کارهایی می‌شود که نیازی به گفتنش نیست. آن‌ وقت نگرانی درباره‌ی جزئیات و زیر و زبر سیاست را می‌سپارید دست آنهایی که توانش را دارند. صفحه ۸۲ کتاب
هیچ کس نمی‌تواند حقیقت را تا ابد مخفی کند. حتی اگر ناقوس زن بمیرد، باد ناقوس را به صدا درمی‌آورد. صفحه ۱۳۱ کتاب
به نظرم کشوری که در آن انسان صاحب انسان باشد، یک جورهایی نفرین‌ شده است. بوی تعفن چنین فسادی هیچ‌ وقت از مشام روح یک ملت نمی‌رود، و این بوی تعفن بدی‌های آینده است. صفحه ۱۶۵ کتاب
انتظار می‌کشی. در لحظات امیدواری و روزهای ناامیدی انتظار می‌کشی. گاه فقط انتظار می‌کشی و هیچ توهینی از این بزرگ‌تر نیست. صفحه ۲۰۲ کتاب
مرگ از بعضی آدم‌ها فاصله می‌گیرد. تمام مصیبت‌ها و محنت‌ها، فقر، اشتباهات در قبال آدم‌های دیگر، ضربات سرنوشت؛ همه و همه از زندگی بود. زندگی کردی، زجر کشیدی، اما زندگی کردی. صفحه ۳۱۰ کتاب
​۱۴۰۳/۱۱/۱۴

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Displacement activity is when you do stuff to avoid doing other stuff, so like instead of reviewing The Fixer I have been playing scrabble with daughter (we agree that ex is an allowable word) and switching the tv aimlessly on to find a drama in which they are just about to cut off John Paul Getty’s ear to prove to the father they have got the kid (I did not care to see that) and then I lectured the two cats on the importance of not chasing each other around the house at ridiculous times of the night, but they were sullen and would not look me in the eye, and then I read all the other reviews of The Fixer and found to my complete lack of surprise they’re 99% 4 or 5 stars.

Hmmm. The damn thing won the Pulizer and the National Book Award in 1967 at the very moment the fab four were singing that there’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be – great God almighty, is that really what John Lennon really sings? Yes – it is! So, try telling that blissed out truth to Yakov Bok the poor goon who gets accused of the Jewish ritual murder of a 12 year old boy and spends 3 years in increasingly miserable prison cells awaiting trial. It’s okay, Yakov – according to John Lennon that’s where you’re meant to be, so just go with the antisemitic flow.

Everybody thinks this book is very profound, all about the human condition and the philosophy of Spinoza and the racist state and so forth, but I thought it was like being the clapper in a bell that would never stop ringing. Bongggggg bonggggggg bonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg – people are very cruel – bong bongggggg – the Russians really hated the Jews back then – bonggggggg – you can’t escape your fate – bonnnnnnnngggggg – nobody will save you in the end – bongbongbong.

Let’s do a random core sample of this book.


As the day wore on he groaned often, tore his hair with both fists, and knocked his head repeatedly against the wall P91

Manacled, his legs chained, nervously exhausted, his body in flight though he tried with ten fingers to hold on to his mind, he stood with five armed guards at his back P138

The leg chains were too short for Yakov to climb the steep steps, so he was seized under the arms by two of the gendarmes and dragged and pushed up P172

All day th fixer walked in his cell, sometimes he ran, five steps, three, five, three, breaking the circuit to hurl himself against the wall, or smash his fists against the metal door P232

At five in the morning the day began and never ended. In the early evening dark he was already lying on his mattress, trying to sleep Sometimes he tried all night. P274

They’re trying to unhinge me, thought the fixer, and then they’ll say I went mad because I committed the crime. P319

He was chained to the wall again. Things went badly. P375


So you see what I’m saying – what we have here is nothing but the unjust cruel sadistic sufferings of wretched Jakov-the-nobody for 350 pages, with a few pages of uncontrolled rantings from the prison warden about how the Jews make matzos for Passover from the blood of Christian children thrown in to give the reader a break. Now and again a defence attorney appears to dangle some distant fruitless hope in front of the half-dead Jakov and he grasps at this faint possibility with a painful naivete. The defence attorney usually commits suicide or is mysteriously drowned within a few pages.

Yes, most of this sorry tale is based on the real case of Mendel Beilis, a falsely accused Jew who – remarkably – was acquitted by the Christians on the jury when he finally got tried. (But he wasn’t a free-thinking non-religious guy like Jakov. That part is made up. )

The wrongly accused man – boy, we have a lot of those in our fiction. There’s a listopia devoted to them
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

which omits some of the more famous – off the top of my head, how about Atonement, The Trial, The Count of Monte Cristo, Caleb Williams, Les Miserables (well he pinched a loaf), To Kill a Mockingbird, Alias Grace, The Green Mile, Darkness at Noon – and Hitchcock liked them too, see The Wrong Man and Frenzy. (In these tales we always get the story from the poor innocent’s point of view. We never get to be with the perpetrators. So we readers always get to feel totally righteous.)

Jonathan Safran Foer in his introduction says this is pre-eminently a novel to galvanise the reader into political action

When I finished reading this novel, I felt castigated and inspired. Grumbling about the state of the world suddenly wasn’t enough. And excusing myself from political activity felt wrong

He is much more robust than me. When I finished this novel I was thinking wow, if you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time there is really not one thing you can do about it. I was actually de-galvanised. I was enervated. The only glint of light in the whole novel was a reflection off the polished boot that was stamping down on Jakov’s head. It was all much too much.

For a much better novel about the grinding misery of prison : One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn

For a novel which makes the antisemitism of The Fixer seem like a stroll in the park on a pleasant Sunday morning, should you really want such a thing, see The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yakov borrows the broken horse and wagon from his father-in-law and with it he rides away from the present, his past of little and less, towards hope and opportunity in the bigger city of Kiev. Though he is a Jew, in his heart Yakov Bok believes there is more in this life for him, even in this land, even in this time. Soon, opportunity does come, in the form of gratitude, after Yakov helps a man fallen in the snow one night. Though the man is a man of means, he also wears the Black Hundreds symbol on his lapel, men who actively denounce the Jews and their citizenship in Russia. With reluctance, Yakov accepts the gift presented. Since he does not look Jewish, he does not offer it up. To do so would certainly be worse. Opportunity then. The chance of a future.

But for some, favor is not their part in life. Their fate is something very different, or so Bok comes to believe.

Through Yakov's experience in The Fixer, Malamund dives deeply into antisemitism found to exist in early twentieth century Russia. It is the time of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s last emperor. He is one who seems to speak from both sides of the mouth. Inaction speaks louder than the care for man and country that is his facade. Although Malamund was born in the States, his parents were Jewish Russian emigrants, so I wonder how much of their living experience influenced the writing of this story. What Yakov endures here in prison is extreme and therefore it imparts volumes. At times he is a completely broken individual, alone in his suffering on the edge of suicide, and at times he stands defiantly, exuding hope for the reader through his thoughts and dreams. It is in those sudden dream-like states of mind I found that Malamund's prose became more than exceptional. It was simply transportive.

[Guille · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

La novela se publica en 1966 (al año siguiente recibió el National Book Award y el Premio Pulitzer de ficción) y está ambientada en la Rusia pre-revolucionaria de la segunda década del siglo pasado, sin embargo, su tema no puede ser de mayor actualidad.

“Respeto a los hombres por lo que tienen que aguantar en la vida, y a veces por cómo lo hacen, pero han cambiado muy poco desde que empezaron a considerarse civilizados, y lo mismo cabe decir de nuestra sociedad… Uno se siente a menudo impotente ante la confusión de nuestra época, ante el cúmulo de acontecimientos y experiencias al parecer irrefrenables que tenemos que vivir, tratar de entender y, si es posible, ordenar. Pero no por eso hay que abandonar la tarea mientras uno tenga algo que ofrecer, o se corre el riesgo de volverse menos humano”

Y no me refiero al antisemitismo que denuncia esta novela, hablo de cómo las élites políticas y económicas, en connivencia con las fuerzas policiales y judiciales (ya saben, el lawfare del que tanto hemos oído hablar últimamente) usan al chivo expiatorio más oportuno en cada momento histórico para tapar sus miserias, disfrazar sus fines y conseguir sus objetivos. Si en la novela la víctima propiciatoria es un judío, en la actualidad bien podría protagonizarla cualquier miembro de la población migrante pobre, especialmente aquellos que provienen de una cultura diferente.

El libro se inicia con la muerte de un niño que las Centurias Negras atribuyen a los judíos acusándolos de perpetrarlo por motivos religiosos y rituales. Este hecho y su abandono por parte de su mujer, desesperada por no poder darle un hijo, son las razones por la que Yakov Bok, judío apañador de 30 años, abandona su aldea para marcharse a Kiev con la ilusión de hacerse rico, instruirse y conocer mundo. Cuando todo parecía ir por buen camino, el asesinato de otro niño en la ciudad va a ser utilizado contra él con el fin de recrudecer el antisemitismo del pueblo y desviar hacia su persona el descontento creciente de la población contra el Zar Nicolás II.

“Para los goyim, lo que un judío hace es como si lo hicieran todos”

El otro gran personaje de la novela, aunque no aparezca, es Baruch Spinoza. Yakov no es una persona instruida, si bien su curiosidad le lleva a leer cualquier libro que por casualidad caiga en sus manos. Uno de estos fue «La ética» de Spinoza y la fascinación por su filosofía y por su figura fue inmediata.

Yakov es judío solo de nacimiento. No cree en Dios, por lo que carecía del apoyo de la fe para soportar los horrores sin fin que tuvo que padecer durante sus años de encarcelamiento a la espera de un juicio que parecía no llegar nunca. Yakov se considera así mismo librepensador, lo que le sitúa muy lejos del fanatismo religioso de unos y otros, por lo que su empecinamiento en mantener su inocencia nada tenía que ver con la opresión que sufría la comunidad judía y sí con la integridad con la que Spinoza soportó la severa expulsión a la que fue condenado por las autoridades hebreas a causa de sus ideas heréticas, y sí con la conciencia que va adquiriendo poco a poco del papel que su condena juega en el entramado de las fuerzas políticas zaristas. También para Yakov es crucial salvaguardar su dignidad y defender su inocencia por encima de todo. Ese convencimiento le dio fuerzas para mantenerse firme ante las muchas humillaciones y los continuados malos tratos, de los que el autor se explaya prolijamente durante buena parte del texto, así como para negarse a los incesantes intentos de soborno por parte de las autoridades para conseguir una confesión de culpabilidad.

[Sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصه ای تلخ برای تاریخی تلخ‌تر. جغرافیای داستان روسیه در پایان دوره تزارهاست، بهم ریخته و درگیر بحران های مختلف سیاسی و مذهبی پر از جهالت و خرافات، جامعه ای که به دو دسته یهودی و مسیحی نابرابرانه تقسیم شده و یهودیان را به حاشیه رانده است.

شخصیت اصلی داستان یاکوف است، تعمیرکاری یهودی که از زندگی تنها حقوق اولیه خود را میخواهد. یاکوف کودکی اش را در یتیم‌خانه روستای فقیرنشینی گذرانده، فرزندی ندارد و همسرش خیانت کرده و در مقابل تعمیر اجناس فقرا حتی قادر به پرداخت دستمزد اش نیستند و تمامی این بدبختی ها دست به دست هم میدهد تا به شهر مهاجرت کند. اتفاقاتی که در شهر برایش رقم میخورد کاری میکند که از کرده اش پشیمان شود و حسرت روزهای تأسف بار روستا را بخورد.

برنارد مالامود رمان نویس آمریکایی است و با این کتاب برنده جایزه ملی و جایزه پولیتزر شده است.

[Exina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was one of my required readings in college.

Like every Malamud novel, The Fixer is a very disturbing read, almost traumatic.
The writing is brilliant, but I have no intention to read it again. Ever.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to start with some quotes. Taste them, enjoy them and then roll them around in your head.

“If I have any philosophy”, said Yakov Bok, “it is that life could be better than it is.”

“One thing I’ve learned", he thought, "there’s no such thing as an unpolitical man, especially a Jew. You can’t be one without the other, that’s clear enough. You can’t sit still and see yourself destroyed.”

Yakov reflects as he goes to his trial, “What is it Spinoza says? If the state acts in ways that are abhorrent to human nature it’s the lesser evil to destroy it. Death to the anti-Semites! Long live revolution!”

In discussing Spinoza the investigating magistrate asks Yakov how one can achieve freedom if all life is bound by “Necessity” (determinism). Yakov replies, “That's in your thought, your honor, if your thought is in God. That's if you believe in this kind of God; that's if you reason it out. It's as if a man flies over his own head on the wings of reason, or some such thing. You join the universe and forget your worries.”

This book is an intense, gripping depiction of discrimination of the Jews in Czarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. It is based on the incarceration of Menahem Mendel Beilis, which eventually lead to trial in 1913. We are given a fictionization of the arrest and two and half years in prison awaiting trial. In the fictional account, the imprisoned Jew is Yakov Bok, apolitical, a freethinker and unreligious. He is your Everyman. He has left his wife, his father in law and the shtetl, all that had ever been home. Six years married, still no child and his wife has left him for a lover. In Kiev, he hopes to make something of himself, but it is in Kiev that he is accused of killing and draining blood from a Christian child. It is Passover and the blood is supposedly a necessary ingredient for the holiday matzos. He is accused of ritual murder. That he has rejected Judaism and that he declares himself to be a freethinker is discounted. The truth is if it were not him another Jew would have been accused. He was there, at the wrong place and at the wrong time, and he is Jewish by birth. It is his treatment during incarceration that is so intense and so gripping. It is brutal and in no way an easy read.

Yakov’s mental and psychological transformation is the second element of the story. Here ugly horror is balanced by hope. Maybe….. Spinoza is brought into the context of the story over and over again. Yakov is no philosopher. He is just your ordinary man trying, if only marginally, to improve himself. He had come across the Spinoza book at a flea market, and picked it up for a kopek. A wasted kopek most probably, but then he started reading and it made a place in his thoughts most definitely! He is struggling to make sense of life. In prison forces are physically and mentally annihilating him. Conversely, he is struggling to cope and to find a reason for living. See what I have underlined in the last quote above.

I might say that the story goes on a bit too long. Hallucinations at the book’s end detract from the story’s believability and impact. They are too clever, too after-the-fact.

The book is about racism and prejudicial discrimination. It is not really philosophical, but you watch how philosophy changes Yakov. The telling is matter of fact, down to earth, but intense.

The narration of the audiobook, by Victor Bevine, is very well done. I had no problem following any of the lines.

Punlished in 1966, The Fixer won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for fiction. Menahem Mendel Beilis’ descendants claim that Malamud had plagiarized the English edition of their memoir. See Blood Libel: The Life and Memory of Mendel Beilis: Includes: Beilis's Memoir, the Story of My Sufferings; And Pulitzer Plagiarism: What Bernard Malamud's the Fixer Owes to the Memoir of Mendel Beilis. It can be difficult to separate source material and creative innovation. Views differ.

[Cosimo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tu sei ciò che vuoi essere

L'uomo di Kiev vinse il Pulitzer e il National Book Award, il secondo per Malamud dopo quello ottenuto per i racconti superlativi de Il Barile Magico. Ed è un romanzo eccezionale, rappresenta una vetta sublime e inimitabile nel mondo della letteratura contemporanea. Nel romanzo, sofferenza e umiliazione sono raccontate come condizioni universali e ineluttabili, il dolore si percepisce come una porta per la maturazione, il riscatto e la consapevolezza. La tragedia individuale viene vissuta come mito collettivo, rituale che tende a ripetersi, a farsi eterno; la disgrazia e l'ingiustizia costituiscono un ambiente originario e immanente per l'eroe di Malamud, un teatro nel quale recitare una parte ineludibile e dove cercare una evoluzione che sia liberazione dal senso di colpa e di vergogna, che connota l'essere ebreo e più radicalmente l'essere diverso, l'essere singolo soggetto non conforme né adattabile all'avidità e alla distruttività del reale. Il romanzo si ispira a un fatto di cronaca del 1911, l'antisemitismo diffuso che condusse la Russia zarista a accusare e imprigionare l'ebreo ucraino Mendel Beilis per l'omicidio di un bambino a scopi religiosi e rituali (il processo, non narrato, si concluse con l'assoluzione). L'immaginazione di Malamud crea un'esperienza di parola irripetibile all'interno di una tradizione che va da Giobbe a Kafka alla tradizione yiddish: è sempre l'uomo che soffre al centro della storia e l'individuo in prigione diviene simbolo di uno stato metafisico, di una corporeità innocente, vincolata e offesa, mai riconosciuta. Così la vita di Yakov Bok consegna al lettore un'allegoria esistenziale, il viaggio di un'anima al cospetto di un'entità che rispecchia un potere onnipotente e ultraterreno nella sua delirante inalterabilità, univocità di posizione e prepotente violenza. Non c'è spazio per il dissimile, non c'è luogo per il vero perché è necessario placare la ferocia della persecuzione e della discriminazione, il desiderio illimitato di mettere sotto processo e annientare l'altro, che rappresenta il personaggio che contiene il disconosciuto, il negato e il rimosso. Per questo l'unica via percorribile è il cambiamento effettivo, la redenzione tramite la rielaborazione concreta, l'attesa di un evento fisico di salvezza, persino il sogno di una rivolta contro il tiranno, la conquista della libertà attraverso un calvario dietro al quale si intuisce un esito positivo. Per lo scrittore newyorchese resistere al dolore comporta trovare una sorta di silenziosa quiete, un sentimento equilibrato di inspiegabile sollievo, che somiglia alla felicità mai concessa alla moltitudine, eterna promessa e fonte di tormento. Malamud racconta bene come siamo composti di paure irrazionali e memoria ostinata e quanto profonda possa rivelarsi la nostra solitudine; la sua scrittura meravigliosa e implacabile esprime pienamente e con compassione l'essenza umana, quell'errare dentro di sé, nella nostra sostanza paradossale e nella nostra estraneità indicibile e minacciosa. Così la volontà da opzione arbitraria acquisisce il carattere di una continuità di destino e di scelta. Perché non lottare per rimanere se stessi?

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

kissing this book goodbye from my real book-shelves ... probably my fault that I didn't quite see the artistic depths of the novel.

The is a Pulitzer prize winning novel. I found it a very depressing read. It tells a story that, in its historical setting, is believable. The main character is a victim of circumstances, for which we feel sympathy, and even horror when we reflect on the fate that befalls men. But he is not actually very likable. All of these things are good, or at worst, not bad.

I just skimmed through the last 60 pages of the book, perhaps I will change my mind about it at some point. But for now, the one thing that I dislike about the book is its resolution. Perhaps very artistic, but it seemed to me that Malamud finally couldn't decide how he wanted to end the book, and just stopped writing. (So, I wanted to keep reading this depressing and horrifying tale. Strange!) If not for this I would give the book 5 stars.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: Look Homeward Angel
Next review: The Portable Faulkner
More recent review: The European Mind, 1690-1715

Previous library review: Wicked the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Next library review: A Canticle for Leibowitz classic post-holocaust SF

[Dagio_maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un caso Dreyfus in salsa russa.


Pubblicato nel 1966, L'uomo di Kiev ripercorre un tragico caso realmente accaduto in Russia nel 1911.
E' l'epoca pre-rivoluzionaria: un fermento di movimenti incitano a rovesciare il potere imperiale e Nicola II difende l'autorità zarista con provvedimenti sempre più reazionari.
Il protagonista de “L'uomo di Kiev” è Yakov Bok la cui storia si dipana su tre scenari:
dapprima il villaggio di provincia dove Yakov vive con la moglie svolgendo l'attività di tuttofare.
Orfano alla nascita ed abbandonato dalla moglie decide, poi, di dare una svolta alla sua vita e parte per l'antisemita Kiev.
YaKov, però, sembra perseguitato dalla sfortuna e si trova bloccato in una morsa che lo vedrà accusato dell'efferato delitto di un dodicenne.
Il terzo scenario (dove si svolge in realtà gran parte del racconto) sarà dunque la prigione.

In una società ed un'epoca schiava di fanatismi e pregiudizi, la terrificante minaccia di un pogrom si fa sempre più concreta.
Yakov si ritrova suo malgrado nel ruolo di burattino: invisibili mani tirano i fili per manovrare a loro piacimento l'infuocata scena politica.
A nulla vale il suo dichiararsi innocente.
A nulla vale il suo dichiararsi libero pensatore, seguace di Spinoza ed estraneo ad ogni pratica religiosa.
Yakov ricorda il biblico Giobbe nella sofferenza a cui è sottoposto:
il tormento di chi è innocente che deve lavare le colpe dei padri.
Tuttavia, a differenza del patriarca biblico egli non intende tollerare.
Non ha nessuna fede da preservare, non c'è nessun Dio con cui riconciliarsi.

”Per vincere una stupida scommessa col diavolo Dio ha ucciso tutti i servi e i figlioletti innocenti di Giobbe. Lo odio solo per questo, non dico poi per i diecimila pogrom. (…) credimi, non è facile essere un libero pensatore in questa terribile cella. Lo dico senza orgoglio e senza gioia. Pure, l'uomo deve contare su quel poco di ragione che ha.”

Due elementi principali percorrono il romanzo:
– la strenua difesa della dignità come essere umano e della libertà del proprio pensiero;
– un'estrema sensazione di solitudine che in un climax ascendente arriva a toccare il fondo della disperazione.

In quest'ottica, Malamud non parla solo di un uomo e della sua tragica storia ma dell'uomo moderno e dell'umanità tutta che lotta per poter essere libera:


”Quando non leggeva, Yakov scriveva dei piccoli saggi su vari argomenti. "Io vivo nella storia, - scrisse, eppure, non ci sono dentro. In un certo senso, sono molto al di fuori, la storia mi passa accanto. È un bene, o è una deficienza del mio carattere? Che domanda! È una deficienza mia, naturalmente, ma che cosa posso farci? Meglio rimanere al nostro posto, a meno di aver qualcosa da dare alla storia, come Spinoza, ad esempio, da quel che ho letto della sua vita. Lui capiva la storia, anche perché aveva idee da darle. Non si può bruciare un'idea, anche se si brucia l'uomo.”

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If I have any philosophy, it's that life could be better than it is."

"What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering."

What can I possibly add to this? Read it for yourself. I highly recommend it, but it may not be for the faint of heart.

[Paradoxe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Βρίσκω πως είναι μια πολυτέλεια που μου αρέσει να προσφέρω στον εαυτό μου να γράψω πως και που με μετέφερε ένα βιβλίο και όσα γέννησε στην ψυχή μου, αλλά να τα γράψω στο σωστό χρόνο. Αυτή είναι η επιλογή μου για φέτος. Να βιώσω τον απόηχο και μετά να εκφραστώ. Υπάρχει ένα οριακό σημείο που καταλαβαίνεις τι σε στιγμάτισε και τι όχι και πόσο μεγάλη είναι η ανάγκη να μιλήσεις γι’ αυτό.

Ζούμε σε μια εποχή εκπτώσεων γιατί η ιστορία έκανε τον κύκλο της, πάγωσαν οι μνήμες και έγιναν σημειώσεις για εκδηλώσεις στις εθνικές εορτές. Κι εμείς ξεχάσαμε, ξεχνάμε διαρκώς. Και γι’ αυτό, η ιστορία επαναλαμβάνεται. Αλλάζουν οι τόποι, αλλάζουν οι εποχές, δεν αλλάζει όμως ο άνθρωπος. Η ευτυχία είναι ένα συγκλονιστικό γεγονός, όμως πάρα πολύ σπάνιο. Δε μπορείς να την κυνηγήσεις ό,τι και να κάνεις. Δεν υπάρχει συνταγή και ούτε αναπαράγεται. Θα έρθει όταν είναι να έρθει. Μπορείς μόνο να ζεις με αυτό που σου άφησε τη στιγμή της κόψης της, αλλά και τη στιγμή που έσβησε πια. Να την τιμάς με αυτό τον τρόπο. Όμως, δεν είμαστε φτιαγμένοι ( και όχι πλασμένοι ) έτσι. Δε μπορούμε να έχουμε το όμορφο, το συγκλονιστικό, το υπέροχο. Άρα πρέπει να έχουμε ό,τι μπορούμε. Αυτός γίνεται πια ο στόχος. Και υπάρχουν εμπόδια. Και υπάρχει αντιξοότητα και υπάρχει σύγκριση. Βλέπουμε κάπου αλλού το χάδι της, βλέπουμε την ομοιογένεια, βλέπουμε το δέσιμο, βλέπουμε να έρχεται η ευμάρεια σε ανθρώπους που δείχνουν να μην την εκτιμούν και ζηλεύουμε, θέλουμε να τους το πάρουμε όλο αυτό. Θέλουμε να τους καταραστούμε. Θέλουμε να μην έχουν. Και μόνη λύση γι’ αυτό, είναι η υπερίσχυση. Και βλέπουμε πως κι άλλοι νιώθουν έτσι, γινόμαστε πολλοί. Τους εκτοπίζουμε, τους απαρνιόμαστε, τους σκοτώνουμε ολοένα και πιο πολύ.

Είναι παιδιά ένα βιβλίο που μιλάει για τους γονείς του Χίτλερ. Ο Χίτλερ δεν ήταν φαινόμενο μιας χώρας, ήταν αποτέλεσμα μιας εποχής. Ήταν η σφραγίδα της. Ήταν μαζί ο Καμύ και ο Σοπενάουερ, ήταν ο Σπινόζα και ο Κιργκεγκώρ. Ήταν ο Σαρτρ και ο Τσιόραν. Ήταν, αυτό που ετοιμάζεται να ξαναγεννηθεί από γειτονιά σε γειτονιά. Ήταν ο Μπροχ και ήταν ο Στίρνερ. Ήταν ο Ξενόπουλος και ο Πολυλάς. Ήταν η κρυμμένη ζήλεια, ήταν ο φανερός όχλος. Ήταν ο απέναντι που δε σου μιλάει πια, γιατί εκείνος πήρε καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο κι εσύ χαμογελάς μ’ ένα χέρι μέσα στο δικό σου. Ήταν μια μαμά που τρέχει με το καρότσι στο πάρκιν του σούπερ μάρκετ κι η κόρη της που της είναι φτυστή, γελάει υπέροχα όπως μόνο τα παιδιά μπορούν κι εγώ περνάω δυστυχισμένος γιατί δεν έχω παιδιά και δε θα αποκτήσω. Ήταν αυτό, που είναι.

[Paolo del ventoso Est · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce l'ho fatta. L'ho finito sugli sgoccioli di questo dannato 2020. Che storia tremenda, di prigionia e ingiustizia, ultrakafkiana. Yakov Bok il Giobbe miscredente che non cede anche se cade, non si piega anche se si piaga. La scrittura di Malamud che ti attanaglia, nuda e fredda come quella cella dove langui per centinaia di pagine. Quale terribile, meravigliosa sofferenza questa lettura. Purificante nel suo portato di nequizia.

[°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ʜᴇʟᴇɴ Ροζουλί Εωσφόρος ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° ★·.·´¯`· · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η ιστορία, η εξέλιξη, οι πρωταγωνιστες και ο ήρωας του βιβλίου επεκτείνονται πέρα απο κάθε σύνορο , κοσμικό και εξωκοσμικό. Αναπηδά απο τα παρελθόν στο παρόν με συνειρμικά σκέψεων και επινοημένες αναμνήσεις ή αληθινές παραστάσεις,βιωματικές.
Όλα μαζί προωθούνται στο μέλλον και επικαιροποιούνται με καθολική σημασία. Ένα θλιβερό και ενδιαφέρον μυθιστόρημα για την κατάσταση της ανθρωπότητας.
Ο πολυπαθής τεχνίτης, ο μάστορας των βασανιστηρίων και της κατάφορης αδικίας έζησε και μαρτύρησε στην τσαρική Ρωσία μεταξύ 1905-1908 όταν ένα κύμα αντισημιτισμού σάρωνε τη χώρα αλλά και την προσαρτημένη χώρα της Ουκρανίας.

Ο μάστορας είναι ένας πάμπτωχος μάρτυρας, ένας πατέρας χωρίς παιδιά, ένας σύζυγος χωρίς γυναίκα. Απεμπολεί την εβραϊκή του ταυτότητα και προσπαθεί να εργαστεί σε άγνωστο για αυτόν τόπο με ψεύτικα στοιχεία ταυτοποίησης για να ξεφύγει απο την οδυνηρή πραγματικότητα της ζωής του.

Ο μάστορας όμως αντιπροσωπεύει όλους τους Εβραίους, τη φυλή που είναι πάντα καταραμένη για τους χριστιανικούς χωροχρόνους.
Ξαφνικά και απρόσκοπτα κατηγορείται για την τελετουργική δολοφονία ενός μικρού Ρώσου.
Λέγεται ότι οι Εβραίοι χρησιμοποιούν χριστιανικό αίμα στις θρησκευτικές τους τελετουργίες καθώς προσπαθούν να υπονομεύσουν το κράτος.
Μέσω αυτής της συκοφαντίας αίματος,και φιλοσοφίας και μασονικής μυστικότητας, όλα τα δεινά της ρωσικής κοινωνίας περνάνε στο κατηγορητήριο του μάστορα.

Όταν φυλακίζεται παράνομα και καταχρηστικά πέρα απο κάθε νόμο και θεσμό δικαιοσύνης όλη σχεδόν η κοινωνία, από τους συγκρατούμενούς του, μέσω των δεσμοφυλάκων και των εισαγγελέων του, μέχρι τον Τσάρο, είναι ενωμένη στην καταδίκη και το μίσος τους για τον Μάστορα
Κακομεταχειρίζεται, βασανίζεται, γίνεται προσπάθεια να τον δηλητηριάσουν, και διάφορες μηχανορραφίες χρησιμοποιούνται για να προσπαθήσουν να τον κάνουν να υπογράψει μια ομολογία. Παρά τις περιστασιακές κρίσεις αυτο-τιμωρίας ο ετοιμοθάνατος πλέον φυλακισμένος επιμένει να διαμαρτύρεται για την αθωότητά του.
Δεμένος με σιδερένιες αλυσίδες ώστε να μη φτάνει το πέτρινο κρεβάτι για να καθίσει στη διάρκεια της ημέρας. Τη νύχτα χωρίς αλυσίδες και σκεπάσματα σχεδόν γυμνός, βρόμικος, πληγιασμένος, παγωμένος απο τις πολικές θερμοκρασίες και θεονήστικος προσπαθεί να κοιμηθεί μήπως έχει την τύχη της λύτρωσης του θανάτου.
Δυο χρόνια μετά, η ιστορία στην Ρωσία τραγουδάει καθαρά και όμορφα. Η δίκη είναι προ των πυλών η καταδίκη σχεδόν σίγουρη, η αθώωση προφανώς αποδεδειγμένη.
Μια οργιαστική λογοτεχνική εμπειρία που αφυπνίζει τα εκδικητικά ένστικτα και την συγκινησιακή φόρτιση κάθε αναγνώστη.



Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς και σεμνούς ασπασμούς.

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 4 out of 5]

netflix'deki son çar belgeseliyle beraber bitirdim bu romanı, şansa aynı dönemde aynı pis bozuk düzende geçiyor.
yahudi yakov bok'un başına gelenler aslında bir yandan "dönüşüm" hikayesi. işlemediği bir suç yüzünden 2 sene iddianame, 6 ay da davasını bekleyen yakov'un çektiği işkenceler insanın soluğunu kesiyor. yahudilerle ilgili hurafeler, yahudi nefreti, yakov'a kurulan inanılmaz komplo o kadar da inanılmaz değil çünkü daha bugün yeni akit bu saçma sapan hıristiyan çocuğun kanını akıtma yalanını haber yaptı. yani anti semitizm bitmiyor, bitmiyor.
ama yakov'un tüm o işkencelere karşın bir biçimde aklını kullanması, suçu kabul edip cezasız yırtmak yerine suçsuzluğunu haykırması, hiç kaybetmediği onuru, spinoza'yı düşünerek yaşadığı dönüşüm romanın asıl büyüklüğü. korkak bir adamdan cesur, apolitik bir adamdan politik bir kahraman yaratması ve bunu çok iyi aktarması malamud'un başarısı.
ukrayna, özellikle de kiev gerçekten bir ortaçağ şehriymiş. nasıl karanlık ve hurafelerle dolu.
yakov'un çektikleri arasında onu onursuzlaştırmaya çalışan en iğrenç işkence günde 3 kez çırılçıplak aranması. bu onursuzlaştırma biçiminin hâlâ devam etmesi de insanlığın ayıbı olsun. onur yaser can'ı hiç unutmayın.

[Iulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

O altfel de carte, un mileu literar brodat în jurul lui Iakov Bok, un evreu sărac care spune despre el însuși că "Eu am fost tras pe sfoară încă de la născare." Soția aparent stearpă și infidelă care-l face un soț părăsit, plin de rușine, plus sentimentul de prizonierat într-un tîrgusor, îl împing pe Iakov Cîrpaciul să plece la Kiev ca să-și câștige pâinea cinstit și sa vadă și el puțin lumea. Câteva alegeri greșite, inevitabilul ghinion și împrejurările istorice il trimit pe Iakov în închisoare cu acuzația gravă de a fi omorât un copil rus. Bietul cârpaci se transformă dintr-un evrei liber într-un (posibil) vinovat prins în capcană, abuzat, abandonat și neputincios. "Noi știm că n-ai comis crima, dar ce-i mai rău e că și ei știu, dar susțin că ești vinovat."
"Cârpaciul" este genul acela de carte despre care nu știi nimic ṣi ajunge la tine printr-o coincidență / recomandare fericită. Urmarea: te atinge atât de tare încât îți este drag chiar și numai să o vezi cu coada ochiului pe raft în bibliotecã și să știi că este a ta.

[Zahra Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

«اگر فقط یک چیز آموخته باشم، این است که انسانِ غیرسیاسی وجود ندارد، به‌خصوص اگر یهودی باشد. نمی‌توانی انسان باشی اما سیاسی نباشی، به همین سادگی. نمی‌توانی بنشینی و نابودی خودت را تماشا کنی.»

و حالا به‌جای «یهودی» بذار: «ایرانی»!
به‌لحاظ روانی خسته‌ام کرد خوندنش، چون متاسفانه کتابیه که هر ایرانی میتونه خودش رو جای یاکوف بُک بذاره و کاملا لمسش کنه.

[Siti · Rating 5 out of 5]

NEVICA STORIA

La lettura di questo romanzo origina una constatazione immediata: l’antisemitismo ha radici profonde capaci di alimentare conflitti e opposizioni di varia natura. I libri di storia raccontano l’espulsione degli ebrei dalla Spagna o il caso dell’ebreo Dreyfus, celebre anche per il "J’accuse" di Zola, ma gli episodi ai danni del singolo o del gruppo furono i più vari e, come è risaputo, toccarono trasversalmente l’Europa e le sue diverse epoche storiche, acuendosi notevolmente con le conquiste liberali scaturite dalla Rivoluzione francese e giungendo al loro culmine con la Shoah.

Malamud, ispirandosi al caso di Mendel Beilis ,ebreo ucraino ingiustamente accusato dell’omicidio di un bambino cristiano nella Russia zarista, partorisce il personaggio di Yacov Bok che acquista subito una chiara identità . Entra in scena in un momento storico poco opportuno, le Centurie Nere in Russia hanno appena arretrato di alcuni passi rispetto alla svolta liberale che le concessioni zariste hanno ventilato, la Duma discute inoltre l’abolizione della “Zona di residenza “ degli ebrei quando un bambino cristiano viene ritrovato cadavere. Non c’è dubbio: è un omicidio rituale compiuto con lo scopo di avere cinque litri di sangue cristiano per impastare il pane. Tutti gli indizi vengono fatti ricadere sull’ebreo Yacov Bok che, abbandonato il suo shtelt , è giunto da poco a Kiev dove è riuscito a entrare nelle grazie di un ricco cristiano che si ritrova per caso in debito con lui. La sorte fa allora girare il povero ebreo come una trottola e la spirale lo risucchia nel vortice nero dell’antigiudaismo: capro espiatorio perfetto sul quale si dirottano tensioni politiche e civili all’alba della Rivoluzione di febbraio.

La Storia permette a Malamud di creare un romanzo dalla portata eccezionale. La rappresentazione della vicenda vive dell’impeccabile stile dell’autore riconoscibile per il suo sguardo emotivamente distaccato, neutrale, per il susseguirsi di pagine mai pesanti in un volume corposo che fa nascere nel lettore un sentimento di ammirazione profonda. Tante parole, pochi accadimenti, una buona sezione dedicata a tre anni di prigionia. Quali elementi allora riescono a vivacizzare quella che avrebbe potuto correre il rischio di essere solo una cronistoria agghiacciante di una prigionia? Un’ambientazione russa impeccabile, un personaggio unico proprio per la capacità dell’autore di evitare qualsiasi empatia immediata, troppo scontata in narrazioni siffatte, un personaggio infine funzionale all’interesse dell’artista per questioni etiche e religiose. Il rozzo tuttofare di cui si parla subisce le conseguenze indirette di un suo atto di volontà, egli lasciato il villaggio dopo il fallimento del suo matrimonio, finisce in prigione, soffre e medita: “ Una volta che te ne vai, sei all’aperto: piove e nevica. Nevica storia, vale a dire che quello che succede a un individuo inizia dentro una rete di eventi che esulano dal personale. Naturalmente, inizia prima che arrivi l’interessato. Tutti siamo nella storia, questo è sicuro, ma alcuni più di altri. Gli ebrei, più di alcuni. Se nevica, non sono tutti fuori a bagnarsi”.
È inoltre ateo, paga in nome di una religione in cui non crede, lui che conosce l’opera di Spinoza e ne abbraccia il pensiero, lui “libero pensatore” i cui pensieri migliori si originano proprio durante l’esperienza carceraria. La sua catarsi sarà positiva ma, come quella di molti personaggi malamudiani , aperta per cui il lettore è lasciato ancora una volta a proiettare la vicenda nelle sue possibili ramificazioni dopo aver assistito agli ultimi vaneggiamenti di un uomo che alla fine vagheggia solo la libertà.

Ho letto l’edizione Minimumfax che riporta questo romanzo in Italia dopo una lunga assenza, lo consiglio anche solo per l’introduzione di Piperno, ottima.

24 gennaio 2016

[LW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nessun ebreo era innocente in uno stato corrotto ,che mostrava i segni della sua corruzione nella paura e nell'odio

La scrittura di Malamud è la prima cosa che colpisce
essenziale , quasi disadorna , eppure capace di rendere il lettore profondamente partecipe alla storia .
La storia è quella di Yakov Bok , la cui unica colpa è di essere ebreo, dal momento in cui decide di lasciare il suo shtetl ,povero e abbandonato dalla moglie, per andare a Kiev .
Atroci disgrazie si susseguiranno in una concatenazione inesorabile fino all'accusa di omicidio ,alla detenzione in isolamento , alle continue torture fisiche e psicologiche .
Gran parte dell'azione si svolge in una fetida cella angusta e chi legge si ritrova lì , con Yakov (dormiva con la paura e si svegliava con il terrore )
incarcerato , affamato, degradato, incatenato al muro come un animale , in un'attesa interminabile

sconvolto, all'idea di essere così atrocemente solo. oppresso dal caldo, divorato dal freddo umido, consumato dall'attesa di un documento che non arrivava mai - Yakov urlava dal punto più profondo del suo essere, un pozzo stretto, ma nessuno compariva, amico o straniero, nessuno gli rispondeva, né lo guardava né gli rivolgeva la parola. Nulla cambiava se non la sua età. Se l'avessero processato, giudicato colpevole e condannato alla Siberia, per lo meno, ci sarebbe stato qualcosa da fare

Chi legge è lì , ad ascoltare i suoi deliri , i suoi tormentati ricordi , i suoi pensieri ( a volte cadeva in un pensare senza pensieri , in un candore stupefatto, che lo intontiva )
a soffrire con lui.

Una storia di resistenza all'ingiustizia , alle umiliazioni e ai soprusi ,
di integrità morale e di onestà .

I romanzi di Malamud appartengono a quel genere di libri assai rari
che amano partire in sordina per diventare splendidi strada facendo,
come se lui non lavorasse con le singole parole o le singole frasi,
ma semmai con le pagine, con il loro implacabile ammonticchiarsi l’una sull’altra.
È come quei seduttori che la prima volta che li vedi ti sembrano perfettamente insipidi
e già la terza volta senti che non potrai mai liberarti di loro.
Malamud elude programmaticamente qualsiasi piacioneria, non concede niente allo spettatore.
E questo è un rischio immenso per uno scrittore.
Devi avere fegato, carattere e una straordinaria fiducia nella storia che ti accingi a raccontare per non blandire il lettore sin dalla prima riga.

4 stelle e mezzo

[Korcan Derinsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Çok kötü bir psikolojide okumama, bitirmeme rağmen çok beğendim. Tamirci sadece okunup geçilecek bir roman değil insanın içine işleyen, boğazına oturan bir hikâyeymiş. Kahramanımız Yakov’un çaresizliği, yaşadığı haksızlık karşısındaki yalnızlığı ve adım adım değişen ruh hali öylesine güçlü işlenmiş ki etkilenmemek elde değil zaten. Malamud, bir adamın kaderi üzerinden adaletsizliği ve direnmeyi anlatırken insan doğasına dair en rahatsız edici gerçekleri de gözler önüne seriyor. Üstelik anlatılan bir bireyin hikayesinden çok daha fazlası. Bu da romanı çok katmanlı kılıyor. Bazen tekrara düştüğü yerler var ama zaten o tekrarlar da Yakov’un sıkışmışlığını hissettirmek için sanki. Finalin de romana yakıştığını düşünsem de biraz daha kesin bir finali tercih ederdim doğrusu. Her ne olursa olsun ağır, sarsıcı ve kolay kolay unutulmayacak bir roman Tamirci. Yazarın diğer kitaplarını da okuyacağım.

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yakov Bok, il protagonista di questo romanzo del 1966 di Bernard Malamud [1914-1986], è un giovane ebreo russo che nella sua vita ha assaporato solo dispiaceri e amarezze di tutti i tipi e persino la moglie Raisl lo ha lasciato preferendogli un altro: emarginato e senza lavoro, estenuato dagli sguardi insultanti e dalle parole a mezza voce che i compaesani gli rivolgono decide di allontanarsi dal villaggio e trasferirsi in città sotto falso nome e iniziare una nuova vita, ma se in un primo momento la fortuna sembra arridergli, finirà poi in prigione accusato di un terribile reato. Racconto incentrato sull’antisemitismo fondato su paure ancestrali, superstizione e odio razziale, questo romanzo crudo e spietato mette in risalto tutto quello che gli ebrei hanno patito nel corso dei secoli nell’Europa attraversata da sentimenti di rifiuto e opposizione alla condivisione di una vita di integrazione sociale, atteggiamenti e sentimenti ancora espliciti oggi.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won the Pulitzer for fiction AND the National Book Award for Fiction in 1967. Were there no other books written in that year? Malamud is a competent writer. He uses detail to pull us into another world, the starving, pestilence-ridden world of peasants under the Tsar in about 1910. The hero Yakov is a non-practicing Jew (is that a real thing? are you 'of a religion' if you don't go to meetings?) Every non-Jew in Russia is either engaged in a pogrom to murder Jews, or building the outrage for the next one (they drink the blood of children, rape maidens, poison crops, etc.) It's a vivid portrayal of superstitious ignorance, and Yakov is sent to jail awaiting trial for murdering a boy. The prosecutor's evidence grows with each month that passes--a barn burned down, so it must have been Jewish criminals who were abusing children who burned it down to hide the evidence. The prison is torture: cold, wet, starvation, torture, isolation. This is all a great premise and a great setting for a story. Two hundred pages later, the book stops. Two hundred pages of Yakov putting up with physical and emotional torture, hoping something good will happen, being betrayed by people who hinted they could help him. Imagine 'Papillion' without the escapes, or drama. Okay, I can imagine all sorts of deep meanings from this tiresome, static book: fear and stupidity lead to persecution, anti-Semitism grows where ignorance flourishes, and so on. But if I have to invent the meaning, shouldn't I get the Pulitzer? I see patterns in clouds, but that doesn't make a low-pressure system an artist.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sixth book I have read by Bernard Malamud. In every one his writing has been strong and affecting. The Fixer was the #6 bestseller in 1966 and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award the following year.

One of this author's themes is Jewish life. This time he moves out of American Jewish life and back in time. Yakov Bok is a handyman, a "fixer." After his wife leaves him, he ventures out of the shtetl where he has always lived to seek his fortune.

At first he has good luck, gets a well paying job in Kiev and even attention from a woman. But he has been hiding the fact that he is a Jew. It is 1911 and anti-Semitism is in full force along with much superstition and mysticism.

When a 12-year-old Christian boy is found stabbed to death, his blood drained, Yakov is accused of a ritual murder, arrested and imprisoned without even an indictment.

Most of the book concerns his years in prison and his state of mind. It is quite gripping. The Fixer shows the evil that follows from prejudice and discrimination. It is based on the true case of Menahem Mendel Beilis. As medieval as the setting is, the novel felt eerily relevant to today.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A huge disappointment as I’d briefly christened Malamud My Favorite Author after having recently read The Assistant and several short stories (“The Angel Levine”!). This is the book that won Malamud the Nobel, and I had to wonder why. It’s ideological, heavy handed, a hammer on your skull, bald-faced allegory, and miserable to read, pages and pages of suffering. I know there’s a grand point here, and it has something to do with the philosophy of Spinoza (which I haven’t read), God’s betrayal of the Jews after WWII, the reordering of one’s worldview after Evil has shown its face and won, the attempt to locate spirituality and morality in a world without God, the slow glimmer of revelation that Jewishness is not in the end really Chosenness in any sense that can improve your life. I love these themes, but they come across better, for me, in a treatment of an old Jew in New York finding God in Harlem, a Jewish family trusting an untrustworthy Italian goy, an encounter between spiritually and morally flawed characters from colliding cultures who will each find redemption in ways that will surprise you. Malamud’s other works, like Flannery O’Connor’s, embody both apostasy and a deeply religious and redemptive view of the world; they are about a spirituality that needs no God. I love that. I know these themes are in this tome as well but I still don’t get it. Can anyone explain to me why The Fixer is considered Malamud’s greatest work?

[Hoora · Rating 4 out of 5]

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